ByGretchen Schuldt |May 31, 2017

Milwaukee County’s sheriff made national headlines after announcing he was in line for a senior position at the Department of Homeland Security. But his management of the county jail, which led to contempt of court charges in 2006, also deserves national attention.

The election of Donald Trump has prompted the group to shift priorities. “People are channeling their energy into organizing locally, recognizing that in Trump’s America, our communities are under direct attack,” said one leader.

Rally opposes draft of a new Chicago Police Department use-of-force policy released yesterday that would give officers more latitude in deciding when to fire their weapons. The new draft backs off a suggestion that officers not use force unless “all other reasonable alternatives have been exhausted.”

The phrase gained prominence after the Trayvon Martin shooting in Florida in 2013, but a scholar suggests the police-involved death of Michael Brown near St. Louis propelled Black Lives Matter into a national movement.

ByDan Stageman |April 20, 2016

One year after the release of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, it is difficult to overstate the importance of transparency for institutions that have been largely opaque, such as major city law enforcement agencies across the country.

ByStephen Handelman |December 9, 2015

Judging by news reports, Americans were experiencing more fear and insecurity in the closing months of 2015 than at any time since the 9/11 attacks. Last week’s massacre in San Bernardino and the earlier shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado Springs reignited long-festering debates on gun control and domestic terrorism. Nevertheless, in our fifth annual survey of the most significant criminal justice news stories and developments, TCR readers looked beyond those tragedies to focus on the injustices experienced […]

By |December 2, 2015

What were the most significant criminal justice stories and trends in the U.S. during 2015? Which person had the most significant impact? As the country heads into the 2016 presidential election campaign, criminal justice has carved out a prominent place in the national agenda for the first time in many election cycles. The news headlines have been dominated by the debate over American policing, and by terrorism at home and abroad. At the same time, lingering issues about prison overcrowding, […]

Watch Video of 2018 Justice Trailblazer Dinner Honoring Bill Moyers

WORTH A READ

After eight years heading one of the nation’s largest police agencies, retiring Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck gives TCR a frank assessment of the challenges of being a big-city reform chief, what it takes to change the culture of American policing today, and some key lessons he learned.

Big-city gangs may be more violent and newsworthy, but smaller and less violent versions are a worrying presence in many poor, rural communities. University of Arkansas sociologist Timothy Brown tells TCR what he learned while interviewing gang members in a Clarksdale, Ms., jail.

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